Gonna’ have to row those gears a bit to keep up with traffic. In their day, these were pretty spritely little trucks, with their OHC 1800 or 2000 cc fours and slick-shifting transmissions. And it’ll still get the job done today.

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One of the best styling jobs ever on a small truck. They really nailed the look with these–sporty, in a way, yet without losing the message that there was also serious capability.

Salt and hard use took a lot of these out during my childhood, but one can still find the occasional survivor. Someone in the apartment complex where I lived as a child had a 620, until it caught fire one night. It started inside the truck (I was the first one to spot it) but the whole thing went up pretty quickly.

Future (then) brother-in-law burned through two of these in the early 70’s. They were amazing little beasts and he loved them both. Sadly both of them just vanished, leaving only some small aluminum, glass, and plastic bits and huge rust stains in the driveway where he parked them.

They were as common as VW bugs during the seventies. Just saw one going down the street in Portland the other day. Did they originally share the 1600cc engine with the 510 ? I still remember the Datsun commercial from the early 70s. ” Freedom’s just another word for Datsun, cause Datsun saves, Datsun sa-a-aves”.

The earlier 521 had the 510 1600 engine, I think by when these 620s arrived, they had the 1800cc version of it. What a great find, that is in really nice shape. Like these trucks, but the cab is a little tight for 6 footers. The Chevy LUV cab is roomier by a tad.

How in the world did this survive 40 years? Japanese trucks back then had bodies made of toilet paper and dissolved in a matter of a few years, and I thought Chrysler out-cheaped everyone else on their car bodies!

Apparently, this little truck has been extremely well cared for. The owner takes pride in his ride and it shows! Kudos to him or her.

Ironically, the very first Japanese car I had ever seen was a dark green Datsun pickup rat racing around the Marysville, CA Greyhound station as I arrived on the bus from Sacramento, on my way to Beale AFB in November 1969!

That ad is pretty funny with point #3 being “Our axle ratio is an economical 4.37” First time I’ve heard a ratio over 4 being considered an economy minded ratio. Does anyone know that they had in prior years that this represents an improvement in economy?

In the last few days I’ve seen 3 or 4 of the newer 720s on my local Craigslist. After the good looking 620, the 720 is so boxy and anonymous looking. I probably would have bought one when they were new, though at 6 foot 4 it would have to have been a King Cab, but I was still working on an Anti-Japanese prejudice. It would take a few years of the Hardbody before I would let that go.

For an all original ’70s era Japanese car, that thing is exceptionally clean outside a few dents. Always did like the lines on these, even if theyre 2 sizes too small for me. Shame these all turned in to rust powder back east.

Impressive condition, no doubt, for such a fragile old vehicle. We had one much like this example when I started driving in 1980. Hated that little thing. Coincidentally I just saw several four-door examples of this vintage in Costa Rica last week. All pretty rough looking, but still on the job.

I drove by a friend’s house this past weekend and he STILL has one of these after at least 30 years, in the same color and in remarkably good condition. He always takes good care of his vehicles, though.

I have to say, however, that I really remember these rusting pretty quickly out here in California, which always surprised me. The worst rust always seemed to be in the seam around the lower quarter panels. And if they lived on the coast — forget it.

Oh for God’s sake! The CC effect is true. Just passed one of these not 15 minutes ago with a black rattle can paint job and a homemade gear basket on the roof. I thought to myself, damn can’t remember the last time I saw one of those. And yet here it is on the pages of CC. BTW it was coming down Wilson Ave. from Fort Collins Jim Klein, have you seen it?

THIS is EXACTLY the kind of pickup truck that I would find useful. I don’t need a giant behemoth with 10 cylinders belching black diesel smoke. It’s the sort of vehicle I’d use for my daily commute, too.

HOWEVER – evidently the market has dried up for them. And the older ones (except this one) have rusted away or been driven to death. So i’m out of luck.

There are no 10-cylinder pickups that run on diesel, and never have been. Heck, there are no 10-cylinder pickups anymore (Ford still makes the 6.8 Triton V10, but only on chassis cab trucks, not pickups).

My ’70 Toyota, my dad’s late 80’s VW Caddy, Fisherman John’s Datsun with
the roof cut off down in the Virgin Islands, our Nissan KingKab from the 80’s
all of them did yeoman service. As Goldilocks would say “Just right!”

Look a Ford’s little van thingy, they are everywhere. Look at the work trucks
all over Europe. Central and South America…they’re everywhere. Asia?
Well just where the hell did this all start? What is wrong with Merica?
Can we make things right?

Not many 520/521 versions around here any more, and even 620’s are a rare sight, but 720’s are still seen daily in my town. Very popular “landscaper” (gardener) truck. Though our own gardener just upgraded to the next-gen Nissan aka HardBody. There’s a 521 with 5 speed locally on EBay for $5900. Outrageous …. but tempting.

Salt? How about any place slightly wet. My girlfriend, of 1982-84, had an early model. That truck in 82 was rusted through the top of the cowl panel, some of the thin A pillar and around the base of the front window. It was a Northern California car moving between family home in Sonoma and her apartment in San Francisco.

From 1990 to 2012, I drove an ’87 Isusu P’up. It was about the size of that Nissan and sat fairly low so the handling was pretty decent for a truck. I currently own a ’96 Toyota Tacoma that was probably one of the last really small trucks sold in the US until Toyota ‘up-sized’ them in 2002. Both my trucks were/are 4-cylinder with standard cabs. I liked/like both of them, but sometimes wished for more cabin space or cargo room. And since trucks weren’t required to meet most federal safety standards for so long, those older small trucks tended to be especially unsafe in an accident. My ’87 Isusu didn’t even have an energy-absorbing steering column – something that has been on passenger cars sold in the US since the late ’60s. At least for ’96, the Tacoma finally got a driver’s airbag! As most US buyers today want more room, power and safety, the cost to build and certify a small truck for a niche market in the US means just isn’t practical.
But I do lament the lack of choice.

I had two of these ~ a well worn ’72 with a five speed box from an early 240Z and later a ’78 with the automatic gearbox and long bed .

I didn’t much like the ’78 , the ’72 was very sporty, I found a bigger aftermarket two barrel carby for it in a junkyard, plopped than on the original 1600 OCH engine and added slightly bigger main jets, my then young Son loved it and ran the crap out of it for several years .

Even in Los Angeles they rusted out as the sheet metal was all toilet paper thin, I lucked out on both, never had any rusting issues .

I still have a 510 factory electronic tachometer in my garage, have no idea what to do with it, I found the correct 620 tachs for both of the 620’s I owned .

In 1975, the country division of MCA records gave away a 1975 “Lil Hustler”. How do I know? I won it.
I was a starving student at the time and spent spare time stuffing contest boxes. One Sunday morning, a special delivery letter arrived and was signed for by one of my roommates. After reading the “Congratulations, you are the winner of our giveaway” letter, my roommates all accused me of driving to Phoenix and mailing myself the letter as a joke. You can imagine their surprise when I actually brought it home a week later.
It was a peppy little thing and got great mileage. A bench seat, 4 speed and no air conditioning. The dealer said the engine wasn’t strong enough for A/C. I have a feeling it had more to do with his profit margin than the engine power.
Oh, and I still have the “congratulations” letter 🙂